Creative Curriculum Topics

Hello all.Wonder if anyone could help. We are embarking on
the creative curriculum (supported and guided by Focus Education
initially). Some of our classes have trialled it and it is going
extremely well in these classes. Being the competitive sole that I am I
am, and wanting the best for my class, I determined that my class will
be just as inspired as the others.
I have been thinking of Topics
to do and wondered if anyone has done any that were particularly
brilliant? Im not asking for copies of plans or anything like that, just
any experiences that people have had that have gone particularly well.
Have thought of a couple and also took some ideas off my class but
nothing really jumps out at me yet.
Just for a bit of context i am
in a year 5 class, 20 girls, 10 boys but many of the boys have
behaviour issues of some type. Pretty average levels across the board
with 4 very severe SEN and a 4 quite gifted and talented.
Thanks for any ideas that are forthcoming,
Bob

Hello all.Wonder if anyone could help. We are embarking on
the creative curriculum (supported and guided by Focus Education
initially). Some of our classes have trialled it and it is going
extremely well in these classes. Being the competitive sole that I am I
am, and wanting the best for my class, I determined that my class will
be just as inspired as the others.
I have been thinking of Topics
to do and wondered if anyone has done any that were particularly
brilliant? Im not asking for copies of plans or anything like that, just
any experiences that people have had that have gone particularly well.
Have thought of a couple and also took some ideas off my class but
nothing really jumps out at me yet.
Just for a bit of context i am
in a year 5 class, 20 girls, 10 boys but many of the boys have
behaviour issues of some type. Pretty average levels across the board
with 4 very severe SEN and a 4 quite gifted and talented.
Thanks for any ideas that are forthcoming,
Bob

The year 5s at my school are doing Time Travellers and I believe it is going really well! Im year 4 and we did holidays (which was ok) and now Superheroes (which is far better!). At another school I worked in they did Young Entrepreneurs where the children had to come up with a business idea, write a plan, apply for a loan from the Head, advertise, stock, run their business over a weeks period & calculate all costings and profit, then evaluate. The whole project lasted a half term but could span 2 if you got really creative (eg whatever business the children chose to run you could look into the history of. Geog wise you could tie in with a trade link) it ties in easily to presuasion (advertising), Maths (costings) ICT (spread sheets) and d&t (logo's). I have never seen children so into anything as they were to this. It was run across the whole of ks2 in a 3 form entry school with each class running their own business. Each class got to keep their profit and spend on resources for their classrooms. It was really fun to be a part of it.

Hi Bob
One of the schools that I did a uni placement at taught using topics and the one that stood out across the school was 'Explorers' and almost all subjects fitted in brilliantly.
English: Diary entries about the new lands discovered and letters home to their family and friends
Geography: Learning about countries and parts of the UK and comparing these places with the part of SE London that the school is in.
History: A variety of explorers were covered.
Music, art and D&T : Music, food and art from other cultures
PE: It was summer so maps were used to do orienteering outside but you could do dances from other cultures instead.
Science: It was a year 4 class so they linked it with the keeping warm topic and investigated what they could wear in the different environments which they might explore eg. in a desert or the arctic.
This topic really engaged all of the children and they did some fantastic pieces of work.
I hope that some of these ideas might help you

I know that I alway say this, but the best topics are the ones that come from the children. Ask them what they are interested in, then go away and come up with some more currciulum based ideas and then go back to the children and tighten it all up. They love being involved and taking charge of their own learning.

We've done some really interesting topics: touching the void ( mountains/ explorers), I want my mummy ( Egyptians), to be or not to be ( shakespeare and Tudors), dr who? ( space), lights, camera, action (theatre), fairground attraction ( theme parks). It takes a lot of time to fit appropriate skills to the topics but when they are successful the children really love this kind of teaching. Good luck!

Hi...we have recently started a topic based/creative curriculum, with each topic centred around a main book...I am in Year 6 and so far, my best topics have been:
"Out of Africa" linked to Black History Month (centred around Refugee Boy book)...lots of Geography and History links
"The Apprentice" an enterprise project where the children had to create and make products to sell at the Xmas Fayre (centred around Stig of the Dump!)...lots of D.T., Literacy and Maths links
"It's a Disaster" all about natural disasters (Kensuke's Kingdom book) ...Geography again and art
"Light up the World" (can't remember the book!) loads of R.E. links and PSHE links.
It takes quite a while to get all the planning together and sometimes a little daunting when starting from scratch, but it's so interesting. My next topic is " Space and Beyond"...we're having a space ship 'crash' on the field!

Have you looked at Hamilton Trust topics? I use them as a starting place and then add to / delete from as appropriate for my class and me. I have, in the past, pinched ideas from several of their topics to fit with a partic one of mine.
I stress that it is a good place to start - I am not suggesting you just download one & follow it verbatum. But when you have that daunting task of starting from scratch, it does help to see how someone else fits it all together.

My school goes by the hamilton trust topics and have just done a term on rainforests with with year 3/4 class and they loved it! Definately have a look at the topics on hamiton, they have a huge range of different areas for diffferent year groups and lots of ideas to help start you off for inspiration and linking into many different topics.

Hi,
Depends on what your chosen topic is, but my advice is 'go for it'! The more you can make the classroom reflect the topic, the better the children will react to it.
I based last term on the Earth, Sun and Moon science unit - I blacked out the wholle classroom, windows, walls, the lot, and strung up tree lights everywhere. You can get flashing things and sparkly things in most pound shops. The initial impact is amazing, the kids love it and you can link almost every subject to the blackout.
This term, we are doing 'Dr When' - or Britain since the 1930s. I got a couple of cheap Dr Who books, a few posters and a toy tardis. I also have a large cardboard tardis stuck to the wall. Each time we look at a different event in history, a different child shakes the tardis for effect and it's a great way into the event in question. I also researched quotes about time travel and have them stuck around the room.
In the past I have made underwater scenes, aeroplanes, jungles. As I am also quite competitive, it's worth the initial effort to hear other year groups walk by and comment that their classroom isn't anywhere near as exciting!
Good luck with what ever you chose.

Hi I want to do a topic based around Theatre as we do an end of year Leavers show and really like the sound of your lights, camera, action - what sort of activities did you do that worked really well - would be very grateful for any ideas. Thanks
Sharon